I will be voting to
unban Deoxys and I strongly encourage all of you to do the same.
Lead Deoxys is definitely not broken. It's a hazard setter that loses HARD to Terapagos, the second best remover in the tier - this alone is pretty terrible. Not only that, it generally gets up rocks + 1 layer of spikes, which really isn't anything unreasonable when you compare it to Sash Hamu for example, which is capable of getting 2 layers + chip on something else, or Sash Lando, which easily gets up rocks and massively chunks/KOs something else with Explosion. Overall, it really is not disproportionately powerful in the context of other hazard leads.
Offensive Deoxys is also nothing extraordinary. I got reqs with this team
https://pokepast.es/2256b9d24a2b6373, which wasn't even built to account for Deoxys but naturally does so anyway, such as through Mtar, AV Melm, and Tspikes. Deoxys is a Pokemon that, on paper, has few switch-ins, but in practice, is more than manageable. Its STABs and coverage all have common immunities, and it is so weak that it generally has to get turns exactly right in order to scrape a 2HKO, which gives you a lot of room to maneuver around it
in practice. There are a number of issues that make it not broken in the context of this metagame:
1. While it technically has no hard counters on paper, this is not unique. The same can be said about Iron Valiant (Booster Valiant is honestly more threatening than Deoxys), Ogerpon-W, and Gholdengo, and all three of them are fine because what is achievable on paper is not necessarily achievable in practice.
2. The key issue with Deoxys is that its 1v1 matchup spread is
actually not great given its inability to score OHKOs without dropping a Z, and hence it
does not force that much out without risk, indirectly addressing the issue of lacking hard counters (which honestly should not be criteria to drop a mon in the first place).
Deoxys in practice has to get too many turns right to be broken, for a reward that generally amounts to an OHKO and chip on something else, which is perfectly reasonable as a reward for great play.
3. It is so frail that it cannot switch into basically anything. It's forced to run Life Orb or Z, and hence is also incredibly vulnerable to hazard chip, putting it in range of priority such as Thunderclap. Hence, it generally lacks opportunities coming in maybe twice in one game if not already sacked to chip something else.
4. It's really not easy to fit on a team without compromising the team's matchup spread against the metagame, given its complete lack of defensive utility. It's very difficult to cover most threats at least decently well when you have a mon that can't switch into basically anything, and hence Deoxys structures become quite predictable in practice, which gives opponents room for more consistent counterplay against the team as a whole. Even if you believe Deoxys is
very strong on a team, the team
as a whole may not be too strong even with Deoxys.
I will also segue into discussions of Psyterrain here. I believe Psyterrain not only does not break Deoxys, but is also generally bad in this metagame. It is similar to Walking Wake on Sun in CG OU, where Wake is generally agreed to be a
disproportionately powerful mon on Sun, but that Sun with Wake is not a
disproportionately powerful team... or even particularly good (hence Wake is ranked B+ over there). This is just an analogy to a different metagame, but I want to highlight that these edge cases do occur (you could also look at Arch and Rain here!).
Let's consider Vlarcheops's team (not throwing shade btw, love your posts):
https://pokepast.es/a87162dc94c32a53
- This team is very weak to Melmetal and Ferrothorn, which find easy opportunities against this team (e.g. Alomomola, Ninetales) while simultaneously being basically impossible to switch into (or getting up Spikes).
- DD Dragapult with
one boost threatens to sweep the team outright.
- A simple Ting-Lu is also incredibly threatening, especially when combined with a Steel which it usually is regardless
- Kingambit, probably the most common mon in the tier, threatens to trap Lele and proceed to smoke the rest of the team.
-
Positioning as a whole looks like a nightmare, between Atales and Lele with the ONLY pivot being an Alomomola weak to hazards while being a team that basically has 0 defensive utility. This is really the main issue.
- I am aware the aim of this team (and psyterrain as a whole) is generally to
overwhelm defensive checks, but I think this demonstrates that there is a lot of natural and feasible counterplay to Psyterrain... so much so that I question its merit in the metagame as a whole.
It's important to consider the general
weakness of the ladder when evaluating a mon or a team. You can 6-0 most ladder teams with IronPress Zamazenta up to like 1700s because people generally don't know how to build nor play against it (I can include some reqs replays if anyone wants). Does this make it broken? No, IronPress Zamazenta is laughable into balance and very manageable into well built offenses that use mons such as Ghold, Booster Val, or EP Lando to name a few. Ladder is not representative of the metagame pretty much at all... up to an ELO that is certainly not breached when getting reqs most of the time. Hence, I implore most of you to account for this discrepancy when evaluating this mon.
Part of me also wishes the suspect process were different... especially since I did not even start running into this mon until I was around halfway through. I believe a lot of people either form opinions beforehand and stick with them regardless of what happens in practice, or use the mon themselves and naturally steamroll ladder (as any reasonably competent player would with any builder check mon such as Zamazenta or Kingambit) and using that inaccurate experience to judge the mon. You really need to
play against this mon to get a feel for its weaknesses instead of just using it yourself, though that also helps.
Deoxys itself adds a speed control option capable of outrunning Pult without an item, the usefulness of which goes without saying. Similarly, it is able to revenge kill Zamazenta, even with Psychic Noise behind a Sub. Deoxys's main home is Hyper Offense which is a struggling archetype right now... it does not at all provide a disproportionate boost to this playstyle and even if it did, the teamstyle as a whole will generally remain weak.
To conclude, the fact that many people who are voting ban
don't even think it's broken should be a telltale sign that this mon is fine. In my view, it is simply
inertia that drives most of the ban votes which is a little bit upsetting to me but people have the right to vote however they want.
Regardless, I hope this mon is rightfully freed.